Electric fans have long been used to circulate air currents so as to produce a cooling effect for those sitting in front of the fan. Recently, misters capable of projecting water through a nozzle have been used in combination with electric fans in order to further enhance the cooling effect. These misters are often located close to the electric fan so that when water exist the mister nozzle, it is propelled forward by the air currents created by the fan blades, thereby creating a water mist cloud. Such fan/mister combinations have proven especially popular at theme parks, where patrons, who are hot and perspiring after standing in queues for hours, enjoy the ability to cool off by having a mist of water sprayed upon them.
One example of such a fan/mister combination can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,053 to Natschke et al, which discloses a conical mister containing a plurality of nozzles affixed to the central hub of an electric fan. Unfortunately, the prior art is limited. The propagation area of the mist cloud (i.e. the size of the mist cloud) is functionally proportionate to the distance between the water nozzles of the mister. As such, misters which contain nozzles relatively close to one another are capable of producing only small mist clouds. A larger mist cloud propagation area could be obtained by increasing the distance between the water nozzles. But, as the prior art teaches, the water nozzles are contained within a conical structure affixed to the central hub of the electric fan. Therefore, increasing the distance between the water nozzles necessarily increases the size of the conical section, which, in effect, would block the flow of air currents produced by the fan blades, thereby leaving the invention without the ability to generate a mist at all.
It would be beneficial then to have an electric fan/mister combination capable of producing larger mist clouds without blocking the flow of air currents produced by the fan blades.